Thursday, July 4, 2013

The 4th of July

With Americans in the South disarmed and impoverished by war, the Radical Republican Congress proceeded to treat them "as alien communities who were to be dealt with anew under the laws of conquest and admitted to the Union on conditions of its own imposing." To assure their political hegemony in the South, the Radicals deemed it not desirable to have the Union restored by the admission of eleven Democratic States as that would seriously endanger the Republican party.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

The 4th of July 1868

"North Carolina, who had already, in obedience to the President's invitation, held a convention and remodeled her government . . . [and] became part of "Military District No. 2." Orders from "Headquarters" in Charleston, South Carolina, dissolved her State government . . . overturned her laws and displaced her officials. Anarchy reigned . . . a new convention was called.

The Negroes were invited to vote, though their suffrage was not known to either State or Federal law; whilst many thousands, embracing nearly all of her leading citizens, were disenfranchised. The excuse for this legislation was that the States lately in insurrection were in a state of complete anarchy, entirely without civil law and a republican form of government. Each assertion was a lie.

A saturnalia began. Our English-speaking race has not known its like since the plunder of Ireland in the sixteenth century. Detachments of the army were stationed at various points to overawe the people. Almost every citizen of experience of affairs in the State was disenfranchised, and over the others hung the threat of confiscation. Under such circumstances the new convention was called by military orders; the qualification of its members, its electors, and the persons to hold the elections, the time and place, were all prescribed by the same authority…"

The returns . . . were examined in secret and the result announced. That result was 110 Republicans and 10 Democrats! The voting population of the State…was 214,222; the registration for that election in 1868 was 103,060 whites and 71,657 Negroes -- total 174,717. The result shows that about 40,000 were either disenfranchised or in some other way deterred from voting.

Of the 110 Republican . . . elected . . . were thirteen Negroes and eight strangers, who came to be wittingly called "carpet-baggers." They were not citizens of the State and were in no way entitled to the privilege of making laws for North Carolina; but they came to officer the Negroes and to teach loyalty to the whites. The rest were disaffected white natives, mostly without property to be taxed or sympathy with their race, or regard for the misfortunes of their country . . . They met in January, 1868, and framed a Constitution after those of Ohio, Illinois and other Northern States . . . On the 4th of July, 1868, the new government was inaugurated."

The Northern armies that laid siege to this American city for three years had created a smoking nightmare of tottering walls and piles of rubble, burned bridges, gutted factories, and living hell for its remaining inhabitants. Throngs of postwar Northern visitors travelled to see the "rebel citadel" and carry home a souvenir of their war triumph.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

4th of July in Occupied Richmond, 1865

"The 4th of July may be said to have been celebrated in Richmond this year. Cannon were fired at morning, noon and night. A few Chinese crackers were fired off by vagabond boys, white and black, at the corners of the streets in the early morning and in the evening, their pyrotechnic resources, I take it, being too scanty not to make it advisable to husband them to closely. In the morning, a flag was hoisted on the Spottswood Hotel, and a short speech made from the roof of the building by ([occupation forces commander] General Osgood.

Somewhat later in the day a small crowd, made up mainly of Negroes and Union soldiers, with a sprinkling of citizens and children, congregated in the Capitol Square. A lady was introduced to the assembly and read the Declaration of Independence, but in so low a tone and amid such noise of talking and walking about as made it quite impossible for anyone to hear her. The conclusion of her reading was marked by music from a military band which was in attendance. Speeches were then made by a surgeon and two chaplains, and after a benediction the company dispersed.

No applause was elicited by any of the speakers. The soldiers evidently were in the character of onlookers; the Negroes were doubtful if they were expected to applaud or would be allowed to do so [they were carefully removed by the soldiers detailed as police from the crowded steps near the speakers' stand]; and as for the citizens -- to ask any men, Unionist or secessionist, to hear such speeches and applaud them would be asking too much. All places of business were closed throughout the day, but the city wore no holiday aspect.

That part of the rebel population which appeared in the streets were seemingly indifferent spectators of what went on around them. The boys and the Negroes, and the Union soldiers in a graver way, alone seemed to enjoy the occasion."

(The South As It Is, 1865-1866, John Richard Dennett, Viking Press, 1967, pp. 9-10)